Letters

I just read Dees Stribling's article, "The War for Talent: The Giants 300 firms are battling to find and keep the troops they need to stay combat-ready for today's explosive market." (July 2005, p. 74).

As an older architect with a lot of previously laid-off friends that are not even considered because of their age, I find the article particularly offensive in that it perpetuates the "gotta be young" prejudices of architectural and engineering firms nationwide, and the blatant age-related discrimination that goes with it.

There would be no shortage of people if these firms would open their eyes, dust off their ethics, and pay the price! A lot of the people I know would work for less than they are worth, just to be working again.

Name withheld at writer's request

In response to ADPSR's call for design professionals not to work on prisons, Gerald Gurland, FAIA, takes us to task (BD&C, June, p. 10) both because our prison design boycott may not be effective and because if it were we should be boycotting more groups (he suggests Enron).

First, we would note that boycotts often are morally effective even without 100% participation, such as the investment boycott against the apartheid regime in South Africa. Second, if architects steer clear of working for enterprises such as Enron, they will at the least protect themselves from becoming unpaid creditors in future bankruptcies.

Avoiding work for bad clients is not only good ethical judgment, but sound business practice. So is refusing to participate in a system that, while often run by well-intentioned managers and reformers, persistently wastes public money, fails at rehabilitation and crime prevention, and increasingly damages the most distressed communities in our country. With over 2.1million people in prison and jail, the U.S. holds more prisoners per capita than any country, including Russia, China, and Kazakhstan, and spends over $20 billion on nonviolent offenders alone, without making any difference in the crime rate.

Raphael Sperry , President Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility, San Francisco www.adpsr.org/prisons.